In the recycling of beverage cans and the like, particularly aluminum cans, very large quantities of cans are collected and must be reduced to a minimum volume for economical shipment and storage. For a commercial type operation in which hundreds or thousands of pounds of cans are processed daily, can crushers such as described in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,814,009 and 4,059,050 have been successfully used. In these machines cans are fed between contacting rotating wheels, which crush large numbers of cans rapidly and throw them into a receptacle. However, the apparatus is powerful, noisy and suited only to a large scale operation.
For small scale use, domestic type trash compactors have been developed. These are designed to compact a variety of materials and usually have a linear type crushing action, which does not have the power to crush cans completely flat. In any event, this type of compactor is not intended nor suited for crushing only cans for subsequent recycling.
Since recycling is likely to continue and even increase in scope, there is a need for a can crusher which will handle a small but substantial number of cans, such as in a bar or restaurant operation. Such a unit must necessarily be compact and reasonably quiet in operation and require a minimum of maintenance.